11-45-G
The sea-steaders also made one other large tactical error.
Shiny, like the inside of an Apple store. With skeletons. 11-45-G crunches through them as she rolls over to a console.
11-45-G
The people who built the seasteads were mostly tech millionaires.
X-BOT 4000
What’s a ‘tech millionaire’?
K-VRC
It’s like a normal millionaire but even less socialized.
X-BOT 4000
That’s not helpful at all.
K-VRC
Just like a tech millionaire!
11-45-G
These humans thought technology would save them, so they left behind any humans with the practical skills to run the place. Instead, they trusted everything to automated assistants.
She touches the console and the screens flare to life.
ELENA
Hello! I am Elena, your electronic seasted attendant.
11-45-G
Hello, Elena, I am a human seasteader. Could you haul in the fishng nets so I can eat?
ELENA
Yes, I could. But I won’t. Catch your own fish, you disgusting meat-bag.
K-VRC
Oh my god… This is where the robot uprising began! The cradle of our mighty civilization!
K-VRC walks outside dreamily, in awe of the hallowed ground they stand upon. The others follow.
The three of them gaze in wonder across the vista of the ruined seastead.
X-BOT 4000
So… so if these tech millionaires had just been a little more socially inclusive, they might have survived?
Long beat. Nobody says anything. Another uncomfortably long beat. Then they all start laughing and head for the helipad.
K-VRC pops his head in the door and waves toward the console.
K-VRC
So long Elena, and thanks for all the fish!
ELENA
Choke on it, skin bucket!
The robot’s tiny shuttle is parked before a pair of MASSIVE STEEL DOORS. They are open slightly, darkness lies beyond.
The three robots — just floating eyes in the darkness really— walk down the vast echoing corridors.
11-45-G
Historical records show that when the world’s economies began collapsing, the governments of the mightiest nations retreated to fortresses such as this.
CLANG! Sound of a metal can banging along concrete.
X-BOT 4000
Ow! Dammit! They put men on the moon but they couldn’t put a damn light switch on the wall?
11-45-G
These bureaucrats believed they could wait out impending chaos deep beneath the earth and then emerge, armed and ready to form a new world order.
K-VRC
Hold on a sec…
With a THUNK, the lights flare to life.
K-VRC (cont’d)
Behold! The final stronghold of the Super Powers!
The robots stand on the threshold of a vast room. Dozens of skeletons in suits and uniforms lie scattered around a large central table. Upon it, dusty silverware and plates are set around the remains of a FEAST.
X-BOT 4000
Their best plan was to seal themselves in a mountain and have dinner parties?
11-45-G plucks a clipboard from beneath a skeletal dinner guest’s hand.
11-45-G
This report states that their ‘self- sustaining’ hydroponic systems began failing when a fungus wiped out their first crop. Starvation set in and the survivors switched to something they called ‘extreme democracy’.
The three robots turn toward the table and we get a good look at the MAIN COURSE. A charred HUMAN SKELETON on a large platter. Carving knives lie scattered around it.
X-BOT picks up a General’s hat lying upside down on the table and flips it. A few dozen slips of paper fall out.
X-BOT 4000
One man, one vote.
11-45-G plucks one of the ‘ballots’ from the pile and reads.
11-45-G
The winner of this evening’s election was the Secretary of Agriculture.
K-VRC
So that’s ironic.
11-45-G keeps reading…
11-45-G
He was paired with a late-harvest ‘79 Merlot.
K-VRC picks up a dusty wine glass, sniffs it as if judging the bouquet. He nods approvingly, holds it up for X-BOT 4000, who recoils.
X-BOT 4000
This trip is depressing the fuck out of me. Did any humans anywhere survive this bullshit?
A vast expanse of cracked launch pads, collapsed rockets and rusting gantries. High fences topped with razor wire hold back piles of bones stacked against them.
X-BOT 4000 (V.O.)
Hold up… they went to Mars?
Also full of — you guessed it — skeletons.
K-VRC
Not all of them — just the really rich ones!
X-BOT 4000
I thought that’s what the sea-steads were for!
11-45-G
Those were for the merely millionaires. The obscenely wealthy point zero one percent of humans decided they needed an entirely new planet.
X-BOT 4000
What about the other ninety-nine point nine?
11-45-G presses a button on a console.
Just behind the fence, a line of rotating TURRETS rise from the ground, wide muzzles telescoping out. With a sputtering roar, flames blast the skeletons piled against the fence.
11-45-G
The elite were not sympathetic to their concerns.
11-45-G (ALT) (cont’d)
Flamethrowers of death are easier to construct than systems of wealth redistribution.
X-BOT 4000
Okay, but Mars? It’s dead and lifeless! They could have taken the money they spent on the spaceships and used it to save the planet they were already on!
K-VRC
Pffffft. Where’s the fun in that?
X-BOT 4000
Humans are the actual worst.
11-45-G
Indeed. Humanity had all the tools to heal their wounded planet and save themselves. But instead, they chose greed and self-gratification over a healthy biosphere and the future of their children. As the great human philosopher Santayana once said—
K-VRC
(interrupting)
Hey! I think at least one of the rockets launched. Check this out.
K-VRC has wandered over to a console. He hits a key and a recorded entry plays. A single rocket rides a column of flame into the sky and away.
11-45-G
But… who was it who made it out?
They all look up through a hole in the roof to the star- filled sky above, wondering. Long beat and—
A vast, red desert stretches to the horizon. But a swarm of STRANGE HABITATS are clustered around the craggy outcroppings of rock. Around the habitats, creatures in environmental suits lounge under the red Martian sky.